Unique Value

I can virtually guarantee that you have competitors who offer a very similar product or service to your business. Perhaps you even started your business as a copy of an existing, successful business model.

So how can you make your value proposition unique?

There are 2 primary answers to that question:

1. Make your product better than the competition in at least one area.

2. Use specific case studies from your business to frame the benefits you provide in a one-of-a-kind way.

If you insist on having an average product, use case study data to put a unique spin on your offer.

Case studies are inherently unique. No two business-client relationships will yield the exact same results. By utilizing case study results in your value proposition, you can offer something specific no one else is offering.

Target Customers

Your value proposition should be directed at your target customers, and ONLY your target customers.

This isn’t the place to list all your benefits. It’s the place to list value and benefits appealing specifically to the intended audience.

Unique Example #1: SumoMe

SumoMe offers an app called Share for sharing web content withe social audiences. It’s one of 5 billion and half other social share apps/plugins/bars available on the web.

In other words, there’s a lot of competition. So how do they stand out?

To start, they decided to focus on something very few other share bars were focusing on: mobile. They offer a share bar that shows up on your phone and hangs out at the bottom of the screen as readers scroll through your content, giving those readers the ability to share your content at any time.

As a result, this mobile focus has had great results for SumoMe users like Bryan Harris.

Now, this unique value would go to waste if it wasn’t described in the value proposition. So let’s take a look at the landing page for Share.

Wait a second? They don’t talk about mobile.

You’re right, and that’s why I said at the beginning that your value proposition is NOT necessarily a headline + sub-headline. You’ll notice that instead of talking about it, SumoMe depicts the product in use on a mobile device.

They use an image to display the unique value offered and then use their headline to describe EXACTLY what it will accomplish for its users.

Get 20% more traffic.

Who doesn’t want 20% more traffic?

Where does SumoMe get this number? I don’t know. It could be a specific case study. It could be an average. It could simply be a number that sounds appealing yet attainable.

Regardless, if you’re a reader interested in 20% more traffic (aka the target customer), you’re going to either click the CTA or scroll down, and the moment you scroll down, you are greeted with the second half of the traditional value proposition

Want I want to highlight here is the first line.

“Share makes it stupid-easy for your visitors to share your content…”

This is a more traditional value proposition: It fills in the missing pieces for visitors who scroll down. But SumoMe continues to be unique by using the phrase “stupid-easy.” You don’t see the word “stupid” often on marketing pages, so it catches your attention, which as I mentioned before, is exactly what you want from your value proposition.

Let’s look at another example.

Unique Example #2: Crazy Egg

Like SumoMe, Crazy Egg doesn’t utilize a traditional value proposition format. When you land on the home page, you are asked a question.

This question serves to narrow in on their target audience — website owners wanting to understand their user behavior. If you don’t own a website or if you don’t have any interest in understanding your visitor behavior, your only option is to leave.

The sub-heading explains what will happen if you enter your website: “Find out by seeing how users click and scroll through your website.”

Simple and to the point, but as Billy Mays once told me, “Wait, there’s more!”

If you don’t enter your address within a few seconds, the second part (you might even say “the real value proposition”) pops up on your screen.

Here we see the traditional value proposition, a headline describing the benefit offered to customers.

For most websites, the information in this popup makes up their landing page. The above shot is essentially their homepage.

And that’s great. There are a lot of headline + sub-headline + CTA homepages for a reason. But what Crazy Egg has done is create a unique value proposition incorporating all the same elements but in a different presentation.

It’s a unique user experience that offers them only one direction. Either they hop in the top of the sales funnel or they move along their merry way.

Conclusion

If you want to be “unique,” you have to be willing to do things differently. You have to be willing to try something new instead of purchasing a one-click landing page.

Template services are great if you don’t have the time or money to lead the way in every area, but they won’t make your value proposition particularly unique.

To really excel, use all the crucial elements of a successful value proposition — display the unique value you offer your target customers — but change up the order. Play with the delivery.

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